DaveO wrote:
Well we will see, won't we. Why you think the sun shines out of IL's bum I don't know. Whether you are in favour or not plenty of fans do not support him for taking games to London and Oz. He stuck with Noble too long and came up with the idiotic policy of letting players leave and then rushed to re-sign them (just to vindicate his policy IMO) and so far none of the ones returning have been worth it. Player recruitment in general has been hit and miss so while players like Bateman and Green have been signed there have been flops like Pettybourne, Pryce, Tauati, the great Andy Powell (remember him!) and Sarge. He made a master stroke of signing Madge and if he pulls of a similar feat again, then great but if he does appoint Winder I doubt many will be enthusiastic.
To a degree Dave I agree with some of your points however, without IL we may well have ended up not too far away where Bradford found themselves. A lack of a goal kicker for the past few years has amazed me more than anything else in IL's tenure not his motives for trying to generate some much needed cash.
I was pretty amazed when IL bought the club because having been involved in some due diligence for another potential buyer albeit, with low expectation of take up, the club was pretty much a shambles with very limited if any alternative cash streams outside of gate receipts & Sky so any new owner was only ever going to put money in with very little if ever a return on their investment.
All clubs in all sports will recruit players who don't cut the mustard so for me a few failures along the line is expected you have just to ensure that the majority do fit the bill and are a success. What about all of the young talent brought through since IL's involvement? No other club has got anywhere near us in terms of the number and quality of young guys coming through the ranks.
We may never know why SW has resigned. It may have been clashes in the boardroom, personal reasons or a combination of both why SW is leaving but you cannot argue that during SW tenure we have I believe the highest wage bill n SL and the only team with 2 marque players on books so from a financial point of view in generic terms IL has been pretty supportive.
Do I think that IL is perfect? Absolutely not however, I would rather have him than be without him because there aren't many millionaire Wigan fans out there who would be willing to spend with no expectation of a return if any. I am sad to see SW go and wish him well personally and professionally but life is about change and it is how you deal with it that really matters. Hopefully IL is the guy to take through some major changes in the next 2 or 3 years.
